Rain, Iron and Ink
by yoonyoo
Summary: What would you do if all of your fears came true, your crush is watching you, you are cursed to behave weirdly around him and you are about to explode ? This is a oneshot Gale fanfic, on how Levy answered this question. ENJOY!


"Natsu?"

"Mmm Lucy?"

"Don't you wonder how edo-Natsu and edo-Lucy are doing?"

"Miom, um, I'm sure that they're fine!"

Lucy sighed, it was hard to have a conversation with Natsu when he was eating. He would gobble up anything that was in his dish, fire or food (not that one wasn't the other), and would do only that and nothing else, including having a conversation. Lucy let her thoughts drift off to her time on Edolas while Natsu was finishing up his plate at the guild. She smiled as she remembered how dumbfounded she felt when she saw her other self, how shocked and funny she felt when she saw edo-Natsu and that made her think. What if there was another world somewhere where another Fairy Tail lived? Would there be magic there too? She pondered on the question when Natsu stood up and stated: "Let's go on a mission Lucy!" She looked up and answered: "Okay!" with a big smile.

Levy watched team Natsu go towards the mission board. She sighed. The man she liked was nothing like Natsu, she loved him for who he was of course but she would've preferred being closer to him. She would have preferred Gajeel being a bit more.. more...

"Oi shrimp."

"Ga-Gajeel?" how did she not notice him coming towards her?

"Somethin' wrong?"

"Huh? No! Of course not!" she said with a bright smile.

He grunted and after a few short seconds of internal blushing (a thing he did often that very fortunately for him, never showed) he spoke up again.

"Let's go get a job."

"What?"

"You heard me, let's go."

With that said, he took her up from her bench and dropped her on his shoulder like a potato sack. She squirmed a bit but quickly gave up, which caught three men's attention. Jet and Droy, being used to Gajeel's lack of manners weren't shocked but were worried at Levy's lack of reaction. They both looked at each other and frowned. They'll have to talk to her or do something about it. Gajeel on the other hand was worried but would never show it. He dropped her roughly on the ground, she fell on her feet but her knees gave in and fell to her knees like a doll next to Lucy's shoes.

"Gajeel!" scolded Lucy to the lack of delicateness.

"It's fine Lu-chan, I'm used to it."

Lucy was added to the list of people who were worried. She frowned at her shorter friend while helping her standing. She whispered something to her ear and gave off a huge grin. Levy looked up and nodded with a little smile. Both Natsu and Gajeel frowned at the girls.

"Sorry Gajeel, next time, I promise." said Levy.

That evening, Levy knocked at the door and waited. She had prepared few books, some spare clothes and some of her favorite snacks. She looked at the dress she was wearing, a little orange dress that flowed around her at the wind's will, she felt a bit self-conscious. Her stomach and her waist were two things that mainly made her charm (aside from her size and personality), but ever since the time she was attacked by Gajeel, she had always covered her stomach. Though she had forgiven and forgotten, she was scarred. The door opened abruptly, shaking her up out of her depressing thoughts.

"Natsu?"

"Oh! Levy! What brings you-"

Those were his last words before his head was Lucy-kicked against the very door.

"Eep!"

Happy was flying behind Lucy who was already picking up Natsu and dragging him, and his flying blue cat, out, who were both protesting.

"Sorry Natsu and Happy, not tonight! See you tomorrow!"

Lucy pulled Levy inside quickly and slammed the door shut behind her. Lucy let out a sigh of exasperation, she turned to her best friend and smiled.

"Well, that was unexpected." Levy started.

"Yeah sorry, I told him to avoid my house, especially tonight, but that airhead didn't listen. Ergh! Well then! Why don't we start!"

She entered the living room and made themselves comfortable. They spent the whole evening talking until they were exhausted. One after the other, they prepared for bed and Lucy thought that it was about time she embarked on the subject, Levy's recent gloominess. When they were both cozied up in their camping bags Lucy took a silent breath and dived in.

"Levy?"

"Lucy, 'shall we take a job'? Not bad of an imitation no?"

"You sounded just like Natsu! You could have fooled me there! But no, I need to talk to you about your behaviour, especially around Gajeel…"

Barely did the name left her lips that she turned gloomy. She frantically apologized to her friend while she wondered if she only reacted to the name.

"Well, honestly I have no idea why I react like that around him, if I am conscious of his presence, I am gloomy, if I hear his name, I turn gloomy, I don't even understand my own behaviour!"

"Levy, I know this might sound crazy, but I think that someone might have casted a spell on you. It's called "the anti-crush", the name explains it all, it makes you react contrarily to the person that you like. So if you felt happy around him, which I noticed you do, the spell will make you feel gloomy instead."

Levy thought about it for a second, now that Lucy mentioned it, it was true, right now, she felt completely normal when she left the guild, at home she felt normal, arriving at Lucy's home she felt completely normal, all evening they hadn't pronounced his name and then, suddenly Lucy pronounces his name, she turns automatically gloomy and after a few seconds, she felt like nothing happened. It makes sense.

"Lu-chan, how can we be sure? It makes sense but is there a way to be sure?"

"Well, let's think. When you like someone, you feel something more than friendship or anything, so the heart, and… since it's a "anti-""

"The opposite! On the back of my heart! There should be something on my back!"

Caught up in the moment, she started to strip her pajamas, and showed her back to Lucy. Lucy leaped with joy when she saw the little mark on her friend's left shoulder blade; it was small pale green heart with an X on it. Which made sense, green was the opposite of red or pink and well the X on the heart meant, well, must I explain myself?

"We did it! Okay now to solve it!"

"Yup! And soon you'll be able to smile around Gajeel!"

And bam, she turned gloomy.

"Oops, sorry Levy-chan, I got caught in the moment, haha…"

"It's okay, let's just focus on how to break this anti-crush spell!"

Her gloominess was already gone when she started to look through her own books while her best friend hit her own. The night went smoothly, flipping through pages and talking, laughing and sometimes they would slip his name here and there but overall it went nice and slow.

"AHA! Yelled Levy, I found it! The chapter on the 'anti-' spells!"

"As to be expected from Levy!"

The girls read through it and to Levy's misfortune, the book was asking for too much.

"I have…have to do an act of… of… of?"

"I guess, it doesn't mean you have to do it willingly! You know accidents DO happen…"

Lucy barely had the time to finish her sentence when a pillow came smashing into her face. She laughed and threw back her own pillow.

Gajeel dropped himself on a chair at the bar and asked for the usual. The white headed woman smiled and disappeared. Gajeel was perplexed, Levy has been avoiding him and was always gloomy around him. Did he do anything wrong? Was it something that he said? Did his bad character finally get the worst of her? The barmaid came back with her sweet smile and his drink. He barely touched the drink when she popped it under his nose, she was worried for both Gajeel and Levy, they were acting weird. She was about to talk to him when she got interpleaded by Lucy at the other side of the bar, she smiled and went over.

"Hello Lucy, how are you?"

"Good and you?"

"Good good, how can I help you?"

"Actually… not me, but Levy."

"Levy?"

"Yes, someone has casted an anti-crush spell on her and to break it, we need to do something that will, you know… prove her feelings. And she doesn't want to do it willingly but could you help me with creating an 'accident' so that she, oh I don't know, maybe fall in his arms or something like that?"

Mirajane's eyes sparked at the request, on the outside she was only sweetly smiling, but inside, she was wickedly grinning.

"Oh! You came to the right person and I might even have an idea, but we will need the cooperation of a certain exceed…"

She giggled outwardly, inwardly she evil-laughed.

Gajeel was sitting at a table, talking with his exceed, they were discussing about the most pointless thing in the world, dolls. No matter how hard (Panther)Lily insisted, the conversation just didn't roll. It didn't matter, as long as he kept him at the table, sooner or later, rain will start to pour (simulated by Juvia) and Levy, being afraid of dark places, will become nervous on top of being gloomy for she was in the guild. 'Gloomy and nervous are two feelings that can cause damage' had agreed Lily when Mira had exposed her plan to Lucy, Juvia, Lily, Laxus and Natsu. Most of the guild was out for missions (or so most of them thought, Master had shooed them off, in a nice way of course, under the request of Mira), and so it left the guild with an empty feeling. Gajeel didn't mind, he was insensitive to those kinds of things, but Levy wasn't. Lily, looked towards the barmaid and nodded, and she smiled.

"Time to start." She muttered to herself as she crossed the guild with a drink in her hand.

She stopped at Juvia's table and winked at her. The glass was filled with a cocktail that had three different layers of blue in it, on top the lightest shade and on the bottom, the darkest. Gajeel frowned as she saw her friend accept the drink with a smile.

"Juvia doesn't drink."

"Oh what was that Gajeel?"

"Nothing cat."

Juvia drank the virgin glass, stood up, made a dramatic scene to excuse herself from her dear Gray-sama and left the structure. Lucy and Natsu joined after her and the guild felt even emptier. Soon after, clouds started to gather over the guild leaving it dark, empty and cold. Jet and Droy were both out on kitchen duty under the very sweet request from Mira. Levy was alone, cold, nervous, gloomy and didn't like that. She reached out to turn the page of the book she was reading and noticed her fingers were trembling, she reached for her neck and it was beginning to soak in sweat.

"Uh-oh, this isn't good."

She muttered to herself a bit longer, managed to turn her page and tried to lose herself in her book to forget about her…situation. Gajeel really was worried for her, even at a distance, he could see the sweat trickling down her neck, her thin fingers trembling, her eyebrows frowning and her lip-biting habit kicking in. Next to him, Lily was blabbering about dolls and how girls love their dolls, how they cherish them, how much they could seem so frail and tiny and yet the china would make them look strong, how girls would find comfort in hugging an inanimate object, and how…

"Shut it, cat. I'm thinking here. "

"That's new…"

"I said shut it."

"What are you thinking about?"

"Levy…" he said under a breath.

"I'm sorry, what?"

He snorted as an answer. Lily, being an animal, had a sharp hearing, he knew that his dragon slayer friend had said the four letter name that started with a "L-" and ended with a "-evy". 'Hmph, so he does have feelings for her, romantic or not, he does care for her' Lily thought to himself. He internally laughed evilly, 'that iron headed idiot is so pathetic'. Soon, the guild fell silent and the emptiness was heavier than before on Levy's shoulders. In spite of being a nice summer day, it felt cold, humid and she was sweating, shivering, and nervous. 'Help!' she prayed in her head. She was hoping for something to happen, anything, she looked around her and didn't find anybody that she could go to. Natsu, Lucy, Erza, Elfman, Lisanna, Juvia, Wendy, Carla, Jet, Droy, Lucy and even Gray! Nobody was there! Of course Gajeel was there, but she felt like if she went near him, she would be the gloomiest person on earth and bad things could happen, who knows, next thing you knew she might turn into an enraged bull and charge him (though she doubted she could even land 1- a hit and even if she did, 2- a scratch…). She felt the tension rise up like electricity charging her up. Rain started to slowly drop, at first it was a soft pitter-patter against the guild windows but quickly developed into a heavy shower. As if to worsen things, thunder started to roll and lightings lit the sky. Watching Levy made Gajeel nervous too, he felt tension in his muscles and the cat that covered its ears trembling wasn't helping his stress. The cat at least knew that it was only Laxus and Juvia simulation all of this, but it still frightned him just as much.

"Ga- Gajeel, can you sing for me?"

"Huh?"

"Nothing is worse than your singing, so if you-"

"Grrr…"

"Okay! Okay!"

A loud lightning roared and Levy jumped up to the roof (which was really high) with a little high pitched shriek of fear. Gajeel had had it, he stood up and walked up to Levy, stomping his way through the empty tables and banged his fist on the table the frail little bluette sat at. As if the lightning hadn't made her all fuzzed up, each stomping that Gajeel made had made her hiccup every time and the fist-banging made her jump a second time to the roof.

"SHRIMP!"

"STOOOOP! G- GO AWAY!"

Without thinking twice, she scurried her way through her crush and ran outside, holding her head in between her hands, crying of fear, her tears mixing with the rain.

"HEY! LEVY!"

She barely heard Gajeel's voice calling her through her hands, rain, thunder and lightning. She didn't hear his footsteps either, so when she was caught up in the air by a pair of muscled and scarred arms, she screamed her head off in… fear? Surprise? Nervousness? All of that? It was hard to know but on the moment, it didn't matter, she was in Gajeel's arms, shrieking, squirming, hitting and crying. Inside, she felt everything was completely in utter chaos and confusion. She tried to free herself from his arms, which were around her stomach, his chin on her shaking and trembling head, his whole torso was against her upper back and neck. A human prison. He held her in his arms, forcing her to stay against him.

"STAND STILL LEVY!"

"STOP IT! LET ME GO!"

"LISTEN TO ME! IT'S ME! CALM DOWN LEVY, I HATE SEEING YOU LIKE THIS! STOP CRYING! STOP SCREAMING, STOP PUNCHING, STOP MOVING, AND JUST… stand still. Calm down, Levy, please, I hate seeing you in this state, please, just… stop. I'm here…I'm here…I'm right here… with you."

His technique was quite unorthodox but effective, his yelling had overpowered the sound of her own yelling and had caught her attention, she listened and slowly, with body heat and soothing words, she calmed down. She was now in his arms, feeling empty and tired. She hung weakly over his forearms, like a wet towel.

"Levy…Please, don't ever do this to me, it reminds me too much of THAT time, seeing you so weak like that, just like when I nailed you on that tree."

"Gajeel."

"Levy…I-"

He loosened his grip around her stomach and she turned to face him, his arms embraced her lower back in a tender manner. She looked still gloomy and a good three quarter of her wanted to run away, slap him or even kick him _there_ (in the tibia of course!), but she restrained herself because she knew it was the spell and not her that wanted that. She bit her lip and looked up to see his face. He softly looked down on her, raindrops weren't falling directly on her face due to the human umbrella she had over her (his face), even so, few drops did manage to roll across his sharp jaw line, cheekbones or his nose to fall on her own face.

"Levy, I need to tell you something…"

"Shut it."

She tippy toed her way to his lips and softly kissed them. Instantly the gloominess went away and feelings came crashing in, love, (good) nervousness, embarrassment and… happiness. Contrarily to what she had expected his lips were soft… so soft… softer than any cotton (candy or not) she had ever touched/eaten. Those ever so soft lips of his did something even more soft/sweet.

They returned her kiss.

His hands gently pressed her tiny body against his while hers crawled up to his neck and they both stayed there, enlaced.

When their lips had separated, the rain had stopped and they were resting their foreheads against one another, eyes closed, smiling.


End file.
